Factory Blast Claimed the Lives of 4 Friends

The four people killed in an explosion at a downtown toy factory were Spanish-speaking women who shared an enduring friendship and worked together on the machine that was at the center of the blast, relatives and co-workers said Thursday.

Earning about $185 a week each, the four women worked at a machine that wrapped plastic around the small, popping caps used in toy guns and play hand grenades at Imperial Toy Corp. They were at their posts Wednesday when, for reasons that remain unclear, a blast tore apart their work area.

“They were like sisters,” said Jose Martinez of Pasadena, whose wife, Juana Martinez Gonzalez, 33, was among those killed. “They even looked alike.”

One worker and relatives of two of the dead workers said production at the plant had been speeded up before the accident, a claim the company denied.

The cause of the explosion, which injured about two dozen others, remained under investigation. Fire officials were looking into what caused the volatile mixture of chemicals used in the caps to explode.

Investigators from a host of federal, state and local agencies, including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the state Occupational Safety and Health Administration, combed through the debris at the factory Thursday.

Los Angeles Fire Marshal Jim Hill said there appeared to be a “large quantity” of flammable material from Germany in the factory.

Employees described conditions at the factory, at 7th Street and Santa Fe Avenue, as generally safe and said they had few complaints, despite what they said was an increased workload.

Fred Kort, the septuagenarian founder of the toy factory, arrived at the scene shortly after noon after flying in from Hong Kong. He said he returned to be with his grieving employees.

“My first words to them were, ‘I came back especially to be with you,’ ” Kort said in a brief interview. “I’m not worried about my business. I’m worried about my employees.”

Also killed were Maria Valenzuela, 39, of Walnut Park, and her cousin, Gloria Jaramillo, 26, of Huntington Park. Authorities did not release the name of the other woman who died, pending notification of relatives.

The four victims shared the sort of friendship common in the workshops and factories of downtown Los Angeles, where immigrants from Mexico, Central America and Asia make up the bulk of the work force. They had lunch together, exchanged news about their families and invited each other to their children’s birthday parties.

After work, they rode buses to homes in predominantly Latino neighborhoods. Sometimes Jose Martinez, a gardener, drove to the factory to pick them up.

The family of Maria Valenzuela recalled how she would come home from work exhausted, yet would animatedly relate the stories of her friends on the assembly line.

“She loved them all so much,” said Valenzuela’s daughter, Rocio. Among Valenzuela’s closest friends was the unidentified young woman who was killed in the accident.

“She would come home and tell stories . . . about how young and pretty [the woman] was and how she had a new boyfriend.”

Survivors said that the day before the accident, in the midst of a pre-Christmas rush to meet orders, the workers had been sent home early because of an electrical short in the factory.

Some workers said the wrapping machine had been making unusual noises.

Martinez said his wife had no major complaints about safety at the plant. In recent days, however, the pace of work had left her exhausted.

“The machines were going too fast,” Jose Martinez said. His wife told him “her hands hurt from work.”

Owners of Imperial, one of the largest toy manufacturers in Los Angeles, said there had been no work speedup. David Kort, a son of the company’s founder, said there was “nothing out of the ordinary” in the factory the day of the blast.

The company employs about 120 to 150 workers during the Christmas season, Kort said.

“We’re grieving and they’re grieving,” Kort said as the company offered counseling services to its employees at an Eastside park. “We are greatly shocked. Words can’t describe this tragedy.”

Fire Marshal Hill said the machine involved in the explosion used a combination of heat and pressure to mold a plastic case around the caps. Hill said investigators were trying to determine whether that process caused the explosion, or whether factory workers did something different Wednesday in preparing the caps.

Witnesses said the force of the explosion severed the limbs of at least two of those killed.

One shaken survivor described a frightening scene in the moments after the blast, with body parts scattered amid a thick mist of cinders and ash.

“It was worse than a nightmare,” recalled a traumatized Abelardo Flores, a Mexican immigrant who has worked in the plant for three years, earning minimum wage.

“It was like something you see in a Halloween or horror picture, but it was not something I ever thought I would have to look at,” Flores said.

Workers grabbed fire extinguishers and put out scattered fires before paramedics and fire engines arrived.

“We tried to help people, but there was little we could do for some of the women,” Flores said.

The 33-year-old Acapulco native picked up the badly burned Jaramillo, who kept telling him, “I’m going to die. I’m going to die.” He kept telling her, “You’ll be all right.” Jaramillo later died at County-USC Medical Center.

Flores’ sister, Cristela, also works at the plant and often worked on the wrapping machine. But her assignment had recently been changed, he said, possibly saving her life.

According to Flores, workers had been under additional pressure in recent days to finish a big order. “They were pressuring the people,” Flores said.

Most of the injured were treated at the scene, officials said.

Two people remained hospitalized Thursday, including Guillermina Guadron, 55. Guadron suffered second-degree burns and multiple lacerations from flying shrapnel. Guadron, who had worked at the factory for at least 10 years, underwent surgery Thursday afternoon and remained in fair condition at White Memorial Hospital in Boyle Heights.

Another unidentified woman remained in critical condition at County-USC Medical Center on Thursday with severe smoke inhalation and second- and third-degree burns.

Three other workers were treated at hospitals Wednesday night and released.

It remained unclear Thursday whether the city Fire Department inspected the building annually, as required by law.

Capt. Ken Buzzell, president of the firefighters union, said it was his understanding that the factory had not been inspected in a “couple of years,” due in part to the elimination of 14 fire inspector positions since the 1995 fiscal year.

“As a result,” Buzzell said, “they can’t get around and inspect the buildings as often as they were supposed to.”

Asked when the factory was last inspected, Hill said the department was in the process of gathering the information.

“Right now, we don’t have all the records on this thing,” he said.

Weary with grief, the Valenzuela family said they were not looking for someone to blame for the accident.

“It really doesn’t matter,” said her son Arturo, 15. “It ain’t going to bring her back. We just miss her a lot.”

Valenzuela was born in Nayarit, Mexico, a town south of Jalisco, and moved to the United States when she was about 15 years old.

The family has lived for the last two decades on a narrow street at the edge of Huntington Park, a quiet neighborhood lined with small stucco bungalows.

Her family heard about the explosion on the evening news. Frantic, her daughter Rocio rushed down to the factory, but could not find her mother.

“I started screaming hysterically, ‘Where’s my mom? Where’s my mom?’ ” she said. “But nobody could tell me.”

The family spent all night calling hospitals, with no luck. Finally, in the middle of the night, the coroner called. At 4 a.m., the family drove to the hospital to identify her body.

“The last time I saw her, I dropped her off for the bus,” Rocio said, trying to hold back tears. “She said, ‘The fridge better be clean when I get home.’ And then she was gone.”

As carloads of friends gathered at the home Thursday, the family struggled to understand her sudden death. Classmates of Valenzuela’s 15-year-old son formed a somber circle around him in the driveway, offering a hug and a pat on the back.

Maria Valenzuela’s husband, Arturo, a painter and body shop mechanic, remained in seclusion inside his house. Family members said he was in shock over the accident.

A similar sense of disbelief gripped the Kort family.

A survivor of the Nazi death camp at Treblinka, Fred Kort said he was in Hong Kong--where he maintains an office of his toy company--when the accident occurred.

“I tried to call the [Los Angeles] plant, but the call didn’t go through,” he said.

Later he called his daughter, who broke the news to him. “It was on CNN, too, in Hong Kong,” he said.

Standing outside his factory, surrounded by his two sons and others, Kort said he told employees that he would offer financial assistance to the families of the four deceased workers and those injured in the blast. He offered no details.

About the cause of the fire and explosion, Kort said he could not offer anything new or substantial. “The investigators haven’t told me anything about that,” he said.

Kort also said he was unaware of any safety problems involving the plant’s equipment or the facility, which he said he has owned for 20 years. “We have an impeccable safety record,” he said.

Juana Martinez is survived by two children, Socorro, 6, and Jose, 11.

Donations to the Valenzuela family can be sent to the Valderrema Valenzuela Memorial Fund, account number 003132940, Home Savings of America, 7141 Pacific Blvd., Huntington Park CA 90255.

Contributing to this story were Times staff writers Robert Lopez, Patrick McDonnell, George Ramos, Valerie Burgher and Erika Chavez.

* TOY INDUSTRY IN SPOTLIGHT: The fatal explosion at Imperial Toy Corp. put a spotlight on a quiet, growing industry. D1

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Site of Explosion

Four women who worked together on a second-floor assembly line were killed Wednesday in an explosion at the Imperial Toy Corp. factory at 7th Street and Santa Fe Avenue. Investigators are trying to determine what caused the explosion of the machine at which they working wrapping plastic around the small, popping caps used in toy guns.

(* Not to scale)